Christmas review

Every year around Christmas time, there are lots of special things in the grocery store. Desserts, toppings, coffee creamer. Right now, I'm enjoying my cup of coffee with PEPPERMINT creamer in it. YUM!

I love Christmas. I hate when it's over and the decorations go away, and the stores aren't as festive, and life loses that sense of anticipation. I have a friend that packes up all their Christmas stuff asap after the big day. That just depresses me. I usually leave ours out as long as possible, thru Jan if my family lets me! Drinking my peppermint favored coffee is one of my silly ways to keep Christmas going.

We had a lovely holiday. My parents came in town Christmas Eve and we all went to the evening service at church. (Sometimes we go to the midnight service but we thought we were too tired to stay up that long that night.) Most of the presents were wrapped, but we had to make cookies for Santa and of course finish up all that stuff that needs to be done before the BIG DAY. Everyone finally went to bed, I followed at probably 2:30 (I always think I'm done but there's always more to do) and we had a lovely Christmas morning! Everyone got their most wanted gift and a few others, and we played games and watched movies all day. The week between Christmas and New Years went by waaaaay too fast. On the 2nd, the kids and I packed up and went to my parents for my aunt's funeral. She died Chrismas Eve, but since she lived 2 states away, the funeral was postponed over a week. My dad's sister. An aunt I didn't know well at all, but I know she cared for me and my kids. I remember when she came to my wedding, how sweet she was and how excited she was to be there. She always remembered us at Christmas, and sent special gifts to the kids sometimes.

I wanted to post some photos from Christmas. First, the tree. Usually there's an angel at the top but she broke and I couldn't stand for there to be nothing up there. We had lots of Santa hats so I stuck one up there temporarily, but I kinda like it.


Here's some of the favorite presents (and one small Santa):
Like the drool?!



And this is the BEST surprise of the year-
Andrew has known the past couple of years what he's getting. Either he finds out somehow, or he's wanted something so expensive I needed his input when buying his gift. Last year, his first at high school, we got him a cell phone and I was sure we were going to surprise him. I got it and charged it, and put his # in my phone right before Christmas. On our way to pick up his then girlfriend, he used my phone to call her. The twerp then was playing with my phone and I heard him say "who's Andrew?" Yep, he found his number. Grrrr. He's been bugging us for a year for a letterman jacket. I kept saying that they were too expensive and we'd try to save up money so he could have one before next football season, all the time knowing we had it! I talked both sets of grandparents into helping us buy it, and bought the school mascot patch months ago, and ordered it so we'd have time to get all his patches sown on. Check out his eyes in the first one:

Look how proud he is!

We told him that he's really earned it, working out every day, going to every practice, putting effort into every game. He learned something from every loss and became a very gracious winner over the past 2 years. This is a boy who was never into sports before last year. He found something he loves, and he's working hard at it even when it isn't easy. We're so proud of him.